As Global Markets Plunge, How Bad Can Crisis Get?

As global markets continue to tumble, many investors are worrying just how bad things can get. The answer: Pretty bad.

Watching market benchmarks like the Dow 10,000 fall by the wayside are bad enough. But what may be worse is the realization that while stocks eventually will recover, those hurt by the credit crisis may not.

And that, indeed, may be the true legacy of the current financial crisis.

“People can handle a stock market that goes down. Emotionally you don’t like it, it hurts you, but you have some optimism that it will come back,” says Dennis J. Barba, managing partner of the Oxford Group of Raymond James. “When you need to borrow money and you can’t, that’s something you might not be able to overcome as a business or individual. To me, that’s the scariest thing of what would happen.”